interrogation techniques

It was part of pressure on them to continue harsh interrogation techniques

(Newser) -
The two psychologists who were handsomely paid by the CIA to devise harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding say they had reservations about using them but were pressured by US security officials to keep going. "They kept telling me every day a nuclear bomb was going to be exploded...
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He asks for review of interrogation techniques, may reverse course on Gitmo

(Newser) -
President Trump is asking for a review of America's methods for interrogating terror suspects and the possible reopening of CIA-run "black site" prisons outside the United States, according to a draft executive order obtained by the AP . The order would also reverse America's commitment to closing the...
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Combining genuine friendliness with know-it-all attitude may elicit more info

(Newser) -
If you need to extract useful information from someone, the best approach may be kindness, according to new research out of Sweden. Specifically, researchers compared a common, "direct" interrogation—where the questions are direct and specific—to the Scharff Technique, named after the highly successful German interrogator Hanns Scharff....
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Jose Rodriguez responds to Senate report

(Newser) -
A Senate panel has voted to release a giant report slamming CIA interrogation methods, the Washington Post reported this week. But regardless of what the Senate report says, the interrogation program saved lives, its former head writes in the Post. "Unlike the committee’s staff, I don’t have...
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Top officials to blame, says panel

(Newser) -
The news cycle might be focusing elsewhere , but a nonpartisan report out today offers a clear conclusion on US interrogation techniques following 9/11: "It is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture," the report says. What's more, the highest officials are to blame...
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US helpers ranged from UK to Syria: report

(Newser) -
The US was far from alone in its controversial counterterror practices after 9/11: More than a quarter of the world's countries helped the agency, a new report says. Some partners hosted secret interrogation prisons; some arrested suspects; others let the CIA refuel its planes at their airports, the New ...
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Assange says files show 'abuse and impunity'

(Newser) -
WikiLeaks began publishing more than 100 Pentagon documents today that may shed more light on techniques used to interrogate detainees at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, reports Reuters . The first release is the 2002 staff manual for Gitmo, and more will follow over the...
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AP investigation uncovers details of black site in Romania

(Newser) -
The CIA's secret "black site" prison in Romania wasn't in some remote region of the country, but smack dab in the middle of a busy residential neighborhood near the center of Bucharest, the AP has discovered in a joint investigation with German public television. Sources say the...
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The practice is Un-American and must stop: John McCain

(Newser) -
Some have used the death of Osama bin Laden as evidence to support the use of torture—but claims that such techniques led us to the al-Qaeda leader are simply not true, writes John McCain in the Washington Post . The senator points to former attorney general Michael Mukasey’s assertion...
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Psychologists first known waterboarders in secret prisons

(Newser) -
The CIA secretly agreed to pay at least $5 million in legal fees for two contractors who designed interrogations and repeatedly waterboarded detainees, say former US officials. Whereas CIA agents generally receive agency-paid insurance for potential legal bills, psychologists Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, the first individuals to have been...
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Mobile units interrogate 'high-value' suspects

(Newser) -
The Obama administration is now using special interrogation teams to question terror suspects like would-be bomber Faisal Shahzad . The units, known as the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG), are made up of law enforcement and intelligence specialists. They mostly are staffed by people from the FBI, CIA, and the Defense...
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Technique helped break terrorists' will, 'Bush's brain' says

(Newser) -
Karl Rove is proud of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques used under the Bush administration, he said in an interview. He is "proud we used techniques that broke the will of these terrorists," the memoir-touting Bush adviser told a BBC reporter, boasting that harsh interrogation tactics had...
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Lead investigator will probe only a handful of cases

(Newser) -
Eric Holder continues to take heavy flak from critics who think he should leave the CIA alone, and the Washington Post has news that should give them at least a bit of satisfaction: The Justice Department's preliminary investigation will be smaller than anticipated. The lead investigator will look at only...
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Disclosure of CIA methods will help the enemy, decrease national security, former directors warn

(Newser) -
Seven former CIA directors—appointees of both political parties—are calling on the Obama administration to call off the Justice Department’s investigation of Bush-era interrogation practices, the Hill reports. The probe, ordered by AG Eric Holder, will reveal too much about the CIA’s methods in an environment where...
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(Newser) -
Barack Obama has ordered the creation of an elite squad that will take over terror interrogations from the CIA, senior officials tell the Washington Post. Dubbed the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, or HIG, the unit will be housed with the FBI, but overseen by the White House through the National...
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AG: 'American people would be surprised'

(Newser) -
The chilling big picture suggests that “the radicalization of Americans” who leave the country and return wanting to do “harm to the American people” is a growing threat, Eric Holder tells ABC News. It’s “something that didn’t loom as large a few months ago as...
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(Newser) -
Guantanamo prisoners fabricated information to give CIA interrogators after being physically and mentally abused, they told a 2007 military tribunal in transcripts released yesterday under the Freedom of Information act. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and one of the prisoners who was repeatedly waterboarded, said he...
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ACLU slams Obama; Liz Cheney: 'fantasies' spread about dad

(Newser) -
Michael Steele has “a personal opinion” on whether the CIA’s interrogation techniques amounted to torture, but he refused to share it with David Gregory on Meet the Press today. “That’s not appropriate,” the RNC chairman said. But Steele did defend Dick Cheney and said Nancy...
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Speaker puts herself at center of storm over Bush policies

(Newser) -
Whether by accident or design, Nancy Pelosi has turned the debate on the Bush administration's anti-terror program into a high-stakes game of brinksmanship, Dan Balz writes in the Washington Post. Pelosi's declaration yesterday that the CIA lied to Congress amounts to "a declaration of war," Balz writes, setting...
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(Newser) -
Nancy Pelosi’s accusation that the CIA lied to Congress about waterboarding will likely have broad political consequences, Chris Cillizza writes in the Washington Post. In the short term, Pelosi has stolen President Obama’s thunder on credit-card reform and could force the early announcement of a Supreme Court nominee...
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